California auditors will be the next investigative body to probe Anaheim’s canned Angel Stadium land sale that has become a focal point in one of the largest corruption scandals in Orange County history.
[Read: FBI Corruption Probe Into Anaheim Mayor Sidhu Stalls the Angel Stadium Sale]
Auditors are also expected to examine if the ball club has lived up to its end of the bargain on the lease agreement with the OC’s largest city when it comes to revenue sharing and maintenance of the stadium.
The audit comes after State Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) and State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) successfully pushed for an emergency state probe into the city’s lease and sales negotiations with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team.
“The people of Anaheim deserve oversight and transparency on the topic of the Anaheim Stadium. This taxpayer-owned stadium is estimated to be worth $500 million. It was hours away from being sold for $320 million – nearly two hundred million dollars below market value,” Umberg said in a Aug. 14 news release.
“Our audit request will ensure we examine any actions in the past and how they can inform and bind future decision making. It’s the least we can do to reassure the residents of Anaheim that we are on their team.”
Until revelations of an FBI corruption probe in May 2022, Anaheim officials were on track to sell the stadium and the roughly 150 acres it sits on for $150 million cash – knocking roughly $170 million off the sales price for “community benefits credits,” which included 466 affordable housing units and a seven-acre park.
The new audit comes after city leaders agreed to pay the Angels $2.75 million for the collapse of the stadium deal after federal agents alleged in sworn affidavits the former mayor tried ramming the deal through for $1 million in campaign support.
[Read: Angels Get Millions for Cancellation of Stadium Sale After FBI Investigation]
Marie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the Angels, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Anaheim City Spokesman Mike Lyster said the stadium’s lease is audited every three to four years, but the city welcomes additional review and will work with the state.
“Our last full audit found general compliance with the terms of the lease,” he said in Aug. 14 email. “This lease has been one of the most thoroughly reviewed and talked about in our city.”
Lyster said the next audit is expected in 2025 and the last one was in 2018 – with the gap due to pandemic delays. He also said the city audits parking, ticket and event revenues and required capital spending under the lease annually.
But Umberg and Valencia are “deeply concerned” that the Angels are not living up to their end of the lease.
In a July 11 letter to the State’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee, they laid out some of those concerns, including the stadium needing $150 million in repairs and the team giving the city an ultimatum to help them with the repairs or they will leave.
“In addition there is concern that the Angels have denied the City owed revenues from both baseball game attendance and contracts for use of the stadium for ancillary events such as 5Ks, graduations, or other events that may incur a rental cost or staff to be in attendance,” they wrote.
Click here to read the letter.
In the letter, Umberg and Valencia asked for an up to $290,000 audit into the current status of leases and sales negotiations between the Angels and Anaheim.
They also want to see how the stadium was appraised in 2018 amid sale negotiations, if the city and team have been compliant with the terms of the lease, an annual accounting of all the revenue offset by city expenses that Anaheim collected from 1996 to the present.
And finally, they want auditors to determine whether there has been enough transparency and accountability to ensure the terms of the lease are being properly adhered to.
Valencia, who was an Anaheim councilman when the scandal kicked off, said in the Aug. 14 news release residents deserve a world-class stadium.
“This audit will rigorously examine the recent issues brought forward involving the Anaheim Stadium, the Angels, and the City of Anaheim. Without proper oversight and accountability, our residents are positioned to lose the most in this situation,” he said.
The State Joint Legislative Audit Committee quietly approved the request on Friday Aug. 9 without a hearing.
The stadium probe isn’t the first state investigation into Anaheim City Hall since revelations of the FBI corruption scandal in 2022.
In a scathing audit released earlier this year, auditors alleged that the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce used tourism tax dollars given to them by Visit Anaheim to lobby dozens of elected officials and support the campaigns of resort friendly candidates for more than a decade.
[Read: Is it Legal to Spend Tourism Dollars to Lobby Elected Officials?]
Anaheim officials agreed to adopt state auditors’ recommendations to improve oversight over the tourism dollars.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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